Epic, Myth and Legend.
Most of our pupils have heard in the lower schools something of Homer and his “Iliad” and “Odyssey”; and the stories of some of the gods and heroes are more or less familiar. When the teacher comes to the Homeric poems he will not be able to interest his young charges very much in their higher criticism; but he would do well, if time allow, to use the special topic and report method here. The story of the “Iliad,” the theme of the “Odyssey,” and certain characteristic episodes from each might be read to the class by pupils assigned to such duty. A similar course may be taken with regard to the legends of the heroes and gods. One interesting story read will be worth a week of mere recital of the twelve labors of Heracles, or the dry account of the fact that Perseus had something to do with Medusa, and Bellerophon with the Chimæra.
In these times of slighting of the ancient world it is well to reflect how many of the commonest allusions of literature, and even of political editorials, depend for their meaning upon some knowledge of the Greek stories. We speak of “hundred-handed” (Briareus) or “hundred-headed” (Hydra) evils of municipal mismanagement; we talk of “cleansing the Augean stables”; Cyclops, Siren, Gorgon, Chimæra, are household words. We owe it to the children not to let them escape into life without some ability to grasp the content of such daily allusions.